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TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced a Pinellas County man is in custody and will be charged with possessing and promoting child pornography. Richard W. Board was arrested by law enforcement with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit after investigators discovered Board had numerous images of child pornography in his possession. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the St. Petersburg Police Department assisted with the arrest.

CyberCrime investigators located images of child pornography during a routine investigation and traced the images back to Board’s computer. A search warrant was executed at his St. Petersburg home today and a laptop, CDs and DVDs were seized, which will undergo additional forensic analysis. An initial review of his computer revealed numerous images of child pornography, and Board, 44, admitted he possessed the images located during the investigation. Some of the images are of children appearing to be no more than nine years old.

Board will be booked into the Pinellas County Jail and will be charged with one count of promoting the sexual performance of a child, a second-degree felony, and 10 counts of possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony which will be enhanced to second-degree felonies under the CyberCrimes Against Children Act, one of the Attorney General’s first legislative priorities after taking office in 2007.

Today’s arrest is not associated with the statewide Operation Orange Tree, but does feature the partnerships of the Attorney General’s Tampa CyberCrime Task Force, of which both ICE and the St. Petersburg Police Department are members.